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denmark vs us

Gay Marriage LoopholeA gay couple recently found a clever way around the system in Oklahoma where gay marriage is still illegal. This case is new, but the concept of gay couples finding clever ways around the system isn’t. Because of the inequality we’ve faced in our lifetimes, many of us have found ways to do things that are perfectly legal in spite of laws that were designed to discriminate against us.

The couple, Jason Pickel and Darren Black Bear, had the idea to get married through the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribal Court, an autonomous Native American judiciary in Concho, Okla., that isn’t subject to state laws.

At first they were denied. But when SCOTUS ruled last summer the tribal court issued them a license. The catch in this case is that you have to have native American heritage.

Coming Out vs Living VisiblyWhen I read this article about transgender people who find it better to just live visibly than come out of the closet, I thought about previous posts I’ve written about National Coming Out Day and how coming out is a different process for all LGBT people. In other words, we don’t all come out. I didn’t. Many of us, even if we aren’t transgender, just live visibly. We’re gay. That’s it.

“For me, living visibly is kind of the antithesis of coming out,” Mock said. “Coming out is so different for trans people specifically. Every day that I walk outside as a woman, I’m out. It doesn’t mean that I need to walk up to every person and shake their hand and say, ‘I was assigned male at birth.'”

I couldn’t agree with that statement anymore if I tried. But I also think this can be applied to all LGBT people, not just transgender. We don’t all need the fanfare and drama of coming out. For some of us it’s just who we are, we go into the world that way without trying to hide anything, and you either like it or you don’t. For me it wasn’t like, “Hi, mom, I’m gay.” It was more like this: “Hi, mom. This is my partner, Tony.” If they didn’t get the hint, too bad.

Get ready. Denmark was crowned the happiest country in the world. I don’t know who comes up with these things, but the underlying theme of the post to which I’m linking is that if the US were to follow Denmark’s footsteps so to speak we’d be just as happy as they are.

The article lists certain reasons why Denmark is such a happy-go-lucky awesome place, one of which is:

They bike. That’s right. They bike. I don’t make these things up.

In Denmark’s most populated and largest city, Copenhagen, bikes account for 50 percent of its residents’ trips to school or work. Half. Half of commuting happens on a bike in Copenhagen and that doesn’t just improve fitness levels and reduce carbon emissions, it also contributes to the wealth of the city, reported Forbes:According to a quick search I did, Denmark is about the same size as New Mexico. While Denmark sounds like a lovely place to live, and to visit, to compare a county like Denmark to one as large and diverse as the US just doesn’t even make sense to me. But what really surprises me the most is that people who don’t live in the US take for granted that we’re not happy here.

The US is not comprised of one distinct Caucasian group. We are a highly *diverse* nation filled with people and cultures from all over the world. We have our issues as a result of this, especially in large cities. And sometimes these issues arise from religious differences because we embrace all religions and cultures. But we’re still young, we’re still moving forward, and we’re still the first country that comes to the aid of all nations whenever there’s a catastrophe.

Ryan Field is the author of over 100 published works of LGBT fiction, the best selling Virgin Billionaire series, a pg rated hetero romance that was featured on The Home Shopping Network titled, "Loving Daylight," and a few more works of full length fiction with a pen name. He's worked in publishing for twenty years as a writer, editor, and associate editor. His work has been in Lambda Award winning anthologies and he's self-published a few novels with Ryan Field Press. You can reach him by leaving a comment here, or at rfieldj@aol.com